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Technical Paper: Reservoir Surveillance and Successful Infill Well Delivery in a Mature Asset

Abstract

Production Petrophysics plays a key role in reservoir surveillance and field management. This is particularly true for mature assets which present several challenges related to fluid contact movement, connectivity of reservoir layers and well productivity. Identification of infill targets therefore requires an integration of all sub-surface data. This paper presents examples from a mature North Sea field where cased-hole surveillance helped minimize risks in a high cost infill project. The Machar field, located in the UK Central North Sea is a fractured Cretaceous chalk and Palaeocene sandstone oil reservoir. The field development has been carried out in a phased manner due to a high degree of reservoir uncertainty, especially in the eastern flank. Enhancing the seismic sufficiently to fully assess prospects on the east became a priority, and ultimately led to drilling the east flank of the field in 2008.

Machar is a subsea field development and therefore petrophysical surveillance has been restricted due to limited well access and logistical challenges. During the infill drilling, it was therefore decided to use the opportunity and capture cased-hole saturation and production logs in existing wells. This data enabled the asset teams to understand fluid displacement mechanisms and upon integration with LWD and other logs provided the basis for the side track strategy. In particular, location of the imbibition flood front, fracture conduits and differentiation between formation and injection water were critical in the delivery of a successful producer.

Two wells have been drilled on the eastern flank, one in 2008 and another in 2010. Baseline petrophysical surveillance was part of the data acquisition program in both wells. The initial objective was to use such data in Time Lapse mode with later surveillance. However, in-depth work identified immediate use when integrating with LWD and Wireline data.